Yesterday I have written my first article on dev.to and shared it on Reddit. I have a good amount of Reddit karma and I was expecting it to become a trending article. However, it got no upvotes. I figured maybe it didn't resonate and deleted those posts after 6 hours.
I have tried posting on Reddit today again and again got 0 upvotes. Perhaps my account got banned, I thought. I have created a new account and posted a modified link – again, 0 upvotes. This is where I realised that the post does not even appear on Reddit. It does not appear if you search for it and it does not appear if you sort by "new".
To validate this, I have posted the same link on a sub-reddit where I am a mod. Sure enough, the post was automatically removed and put into a moderator queue.
In fact, there have been no posts linking to dev.to that were approved in the last 24 hours.
Latest comments (28)
I just learned this the hard way (and found this article googling the issue).
And how did you solve this? I'm learning it too the hard way and I'm really disappointed. Did you write your article on another blog site to share it on Reddit?
I linked from Reddit directly to my forum on GitHub where I mentioned (and linked to) my dev.to article in the introduction of the corresponding topic.
This is still happening now. Posts or comments with links to dev.to are not appearing.
FYI @ben
Still noticing this in 2024
I think we're shadow-banned everywhere - including here. Hahaha. Wait, that isn't normal? 😃
Reddit wants to keep it's people - on Reddit - and so, since Dev.to - is much better than Reddit (for certain things), it makes sense that they wouldn't want people to migrate. However, they don't block Discord links - which seems like a bigger danger to them.
You should probably write a Reddit post about it - but just don't link to Dev.to
The same here.
You could, perhaps, make a post and then add a comment to your dev.to link? Or maybe that actually shadows the comment within the post... Oh well.
Personally I don't use reddit as when I tried to post good things this sort of thing happened to me. Every couple of years I think I might be missing out and take a look and think ”meh”. Can anyone tell me what I might be missing out on to motivate me to try again?
As a content creator, you are missing out on big audience sizes. dev.to generated 2.2k views in 24 hours. Reddit generated 3.5k views in the first hour. That being said, it is true that Reddit comment threads often include personal attack and mocking comments. I deal with that by just being polite in return, providing the bare minimum response if one is needed (if something is technically inaccurately misrepresented about the contents of the article), and move on to other conversations.
As a content consumer, you are not missing out on much. Same content in one form or another reaches other networks.
I didn't know that shadow-banning was a thing... like hiding the fact that they are hiding it? that's an /r/assholedesign right there.
There are posts linked to dev.to, though... see: reddit.com/domain/dev.to/
The thing about those is that the mod of whatever subreddit they were posted to might have whitelisted the post. Shadowbanning puts every post in the mod queue.
Some mods never look at the queue or authorize posts from it while others do. Posting to an active sub can help with that, but it really is on the whims of the mods.
Oh, that makes sense, thanks for the explanation.
IIRC posting your own content to reddit is against their terms.
It is not. Also this comment is ill-spirited. You are making a false claim and leaving the burden of fact checking on the reader. "IIRC" might work in a real-life conversation; it doesn't translate to a written dialogue where you have infinite time to check before posting or stop yourself from posting if in doubt.
Reddit rules regarding self-promotion can be found here reddit.com/wiki/selfpromotion.
I don't think he was intentionally trying to make a false statement or involved in some deep conspiracy to spread disinformation and brainwash the general populace of this website. You could have chosen to just say "Actually I looked it up here and that isn't the case, although you were kind of close because excessive self promotion can be an issue."
He did no harm, he was offering a hypothesis...please try and be more respectful if you choose to call someone out for being wrong. This community is all about respect among members and creating a safe space to discuss the aspects of development we love, and above all, to educate each other.
Is it just a particular sub, or all of reddit?
edit: missed the part where you clearly stated it happened in several places. I wasn't aware reddit would ban domains site-wide.
Some comments may only be visible to logged-in visitors. Sign in to view all comments.